Reliever Glen Perkins, an All-Star closer with the Minnesota Twins, has decided to retire from baseball.
Perkins, a free agent who pitched in a combined 10 games in 2016 and 2017, made the announcement on Twitter Wednesday afternoon.
Let me address the 🐘 in the room. I won't be playing baseball anymore. I'll spend my time brewing beer, smoking meat woodworking and hanging with my family. Or, the same things I have been doing just without the baseball part.
— Glen Perkins (@glenperkins) January 24, 2018
Twins GM Thad Levine said at a fan event earlier this week that Perkins, 34, will retire and would be welcome to join the club's administration in some capacity.
Perkins made three consecutive All-Star Games from 2013 through 2015, but he had surgery for a torn labrum in the summer of 2016 and returned last August after a 16-month absence.
In October, the Twins declined their $6.5 million option on his contract for 2018 and paid him a $700,000 buyout.
Perkins played all 12 of his major league seasons with the Twins. With 120 saves, he is third on the franchise's all-time list.
Perkins played at Stillwater High School, outside the Twin Cities, and at the University of Minnesota before the Twins drafted him in the first round in 2004.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
